Ebisu

Ebisu, in Japanese mythology, one of the Shichi-fuku-jin (“Seven Gods of Luck”), the patron of fishermen and tradesmen. He is depicted as a fat, bearded, smiling fisherman often carrying a rod in one hand and a tai (sea bream—i.e., a red snapper—symbolic of good luck) in the other. He is a popular Shintō deity, and his image is frequently seen in shops and places of commerce.

Ebisu, detail of a painting by Hokurei, 1851; in the Museum für Völkerkunde, ViennaCourtesy of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna

In some Shintō shrines Ebisu is identified with Hiru-ko (usually translated “Leech Child”), the misconceived firstborn son of the creator couple Izanami and Izanagi, who considered him inadequate and set him adrift in a reed boat. Ebisu is also sometimes associated with Koto-shiro-nushi (“Sign-Master”), a son of the mythological hero Ōkuninushi and associated with happiness because of the role he once played as a pacifier in a conflict between earthly and heavenly deities. See alsoShichi-fuku-jin.